The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, some thoughts about Week 2 of the preseason:
Another Reminder About Perspective: What transpires in preseason games, in most cases, has little to no bearing on what will transpire in the regular season. That is the accepted truism about the preseason. For the Texans, they hope that is the case. Blowing
a 17-0 lead and seeing the Raiders go on a 19-0 run in the second half is not fun, even in the preseason. Much of that comeback came against 3rd/4th/5th stringers, but many of those players will be the back-end depth that all rosters require. One could argue that this result should make cut down day real easy, especially for the defenders that couldn’t get the Raiders off the field. However, how many big preseason “wins” did the Texans of the pre-Ryans days have only to see the regular season devolve into pain and misery? No fan ever enjoys a loss, but at least this should not matter much.
The Right Side of the Texans Starting Oline: For this game, the Texans mixed up their starting 5 for the Oline. Rutledge started, but this time at LG with Neal Brown at center. Yet, it was Trent Brown at RT and Ed Ingram at RG that drove much of Houston’s success on the opening drive. Woody Marks gained all 37 of his rushing yards going behind those two. One drive does not an offense make but expect many a running play to go to the right when the season gets started.
2nd Half Short-Yardage Plays: This has been a rather unfortunate trend of the squad when short-yardage plays that are the NFL equivalent of “gimmie-puts” are far from that. Even on the opening drive, on a 2nd and 1, Houston attempted a Woody Marks run over the left side which went nowhere. At least Houston made up for it on the next play. Later, Houston faced two 3rd and 1s in the second quarter, converting both. Yet, the second half saw Houston face four plays where they needed 1 to 2 yards to get a first down. They failed all four times:
- 3rd Quarter:
- 2nd and 2: No gain
- 3rd and 2: Sack
- 4th Quarter:
- 2nd and 1: No gain
- 3rd and 1: -1 yard run.
Again, perspective on players on the field, but that goes a long way to explaining why a) most of those players were playing the second half of a preseason game and b) Houston is 0-2 in the preseason.
Brett Rypien and So Little Time: The life of a fringe NFL player is far from easy. Always waiting by the phone, getting little to no notice about where the next paycheck is coming from, and having very little time to get up to speed, especially if you get pressed into immediate playing time. So it was with Rypien. Sure, he’s been around in the NFL (11th team in 7 years) and he is familiar with Caley’s offense. However, having less than a week to get up to speed with an offense before getting thrown into significant game time is not exactly a formula for success. The second half of the game bore that out. Only 2 first downs in the entirety of the half for Houston, along with multiple communication issues. It is not all on Rypien, but for those fringe players that are fighting for their NFL lives, that did not help. No one budgets for injuries, and Houston had greater needs than QB3, but perhaps having that 4th arm before the preseason games began, so at least someone had more than a couple of practices under their belt, might have helped.
Ex-Texans Playing on the Raiders: More than a few familiar faces were in Raiders’ Silver and Black. RB/Special Teams legend Dare Ogunbowale chipped in with 35 yards rushing and a TD; DL Thomas Booker logged a sack and 2 TFLs; DT Folorunso Fatukasi got into the act with 3 tackles (1 solo). WR Noah Brown even got into the action with an 11-yard reception for a 1st down. Whether they all make the final Raiders’ roster is up for debate, but they at least got some semblance of revenge on Houston.
Fun with Numbers:
17: Largest Blown Lead in a Preseason Loss: How very Houston to blow a multi-score lead, even in the preseason. Thursday night reflected the Texans’ largest blown lead in preseason history. The previous record was 14 points, which the Texans “accomplished” twice: Against Tampa Bay in 2007 (Led 14-0, lost 31-24) and against New Orleans in 2012 (Led 14-0, lost 34-27).
2019: The Last Time the Texans Finished the Preseason with a Losing Record: Thursday’s loss also clinched a losing preseason for Houston. The 2019 squad went 1-3 in the preseason (Did manage to go 10-6 to win the AFC South). Since the resumption of the preseason in 2021 (no preseason in 2020), Houston clinched winning preseason records, going 12-4. Make it 12-6 now.
GAME BALLS
LB Wade Woodaz: There’s significant competition for that LB3 spot behind Al-Shaair and To’oTo’o. Woodaz used this national showcase to present his argument for that slot. His 80-yard Pick Six was about as emphatic a statement as a 4th round rookie could make, especially as he was among the starters for the defense on their opening drive. It wasn’t all perfect, as he only had 2 total tackles and took a bad angle that gave Raiders’ RB Dylan Laube a wide-open TD run in the 3rd quarter. After the game, it transpired that Woodaz injured his thumb but not expected to miss that much time. Still, for making the biggest play of Houston’s preseason to date, he gets a TDATDA game ball.
TE Marlin Klein: Leading Texans receiver for the second straight game. Preseason stars should be taken with healthy caveats, but if he can emerge as a solid TE, potentially being the other part of the 12 formations that Caley holds dear and playing as well as he has these past two games, that can only be a good thing for the Texans.
P Kai Kroeger: Given that the Texans cut Jake Stonehouse before the start of the preseason games, Kroeger had no extra pressure to play well. This game, Kroeger was on point. 4 of his 6 punts landed inside the two, including a Lob Wedge beauty that pinned the Raiders inside their 4-yard. He averaged over 48 yards a punt, and the Raiders only managed 5.0 yards/return on three tries. Do that in the regular season, and Houston will have few worries about the punting game.
SHOULD BE FORCED TO GET MATCHING HAIR STYLES WITH LAS VEGAS RAIDERS’ OWNER MARK DAVIS
PK Ka’imi Fairbairn (Kickoffs): The placekicking was good (2-2 on 50+ yard FGs, 2-2 on XPs). Kickoffs need some work. In the first half, Fairbairn needlessly kickek into the end-zone for touchback, giving the Raiders the ball at the 35. Then, on a subsequent kickoff he shanked it short of the landing zone, giving the Raiders the ball at the 40. The first half Raiders didn’t take too much advantage of those plays, but Fairbairn will need to get back into kickoff rhythm by the time the games start counting for real.
Raiders Special Teams: 2 missed PATs, 4 penalties on punts. Their special teams unit is not going to have a fun day in the film session.
With that, the home slate for Houston’s preseason comes to an end. They close out the last preseason game next Friday, August 28, at the Carolina Panthers. Kickoff slated for 6 p.m. CDT on your ABC affiliate.
